Social venture work at StoryManager went into full swing with the recent funding of BizzyB.com. BizzyB is a new online project-based learning platform designed for middle and high school students to develop entrepreneurial skills and philanthropic awareness. The project received a three-year, $833,000 development grant from Hoag Foundation via introduction by First Foundation Bank. BizGym Foundation, our 501C3 non-profit, also received a Google grant to push 2016 grants over $1 Million.
Made … [Read more...]

Search Engine Optimization ("SEO") is largely seen as a dialing-in process to be undertaken only after a website is built. But SEO might actually be the place to start web development and more. Consider this: how much more efficient is it to know what you want to say and how you want to say it BEFORE you start building a navigational structure and placing a crap-load of ill-focused content on your website? Logic argues that its more efficient to do SEO strategy first before hauling off to spew … [Read more...]

Why We Re-Branded StoryManager
Most small business owners hate the idea of re-branding. Fear of losing "brand equity" is typically offered as justification for not changing a brand. But frankly, customers will continue to find you ~ just send notices and update your contacts. Another common belief is that there's no better way to communicate an existing brand, but that's why professional communications people exist... they can figure out stuff that lay people can't. Then there's the reticence … [Read more...]

Let's face it, website writing can be just plain hard work. In fact, it hurts. But the benefits are well worth the efforts. Writing helps you evolve your thinking. And if you do it enough, you might even become known as an authority on a subject. Further, search optimization is driven by words. So here's a few tips to get your website writing up to snuff:
1. Know Your Story
It's amazing how many folks can't articulate their Vision. If you're a business, Vision is the beginning, middle and end … [Read more...]

This post entitled "Restaurant Branding Tips" is a result of my new morning coffee meet up called Steve's Lanai. I provide the coffee and smart folks stop by before work on Tuesday mornings (7-8:30am) to share a little community chat time.
This week was the first installment and although there were just two of us, it felt like there were a dozen. Thx to Keola Reyes for opening my mind with his well-read mind. Keola came to me by way of a project I recently did (the Entree´-treneurship Center … [Read more...]

Hate your website? Most do. But making a great website design is easier than ever. Varying degrees of fanciness can optimize your site, but 80/20 principle benefits come from just telling the honest truth in a transparent manner. Here's some tips to keep it real:
1. Template Your Way to the Top
Don't be fooled. Old-skool geeks love to do website design from the ground up. They revel in their ability to see "The Matrix" through the code. But it makes more sense to start with a pre-built … [Read more...]

In business story development, there's no better place to start than with your audience ~ via a Voice of Customer Survey. If they don't get what you do, you're in trouble. And where their perceptions are not aligned with yours, you're likely suffering loss of sales and operational efficiencies. Voice of Customer Surveys are designed to compare audience perception against your internal "party line."
The net benefit of Voice of Customer Surveys is gaining a customer-centric perspective on your … [Read more...]

Business Plan Writers in Honolulu, Hawai’i
Aloha Gang! We're excited to announce that we're adding a new service offering as business plan writers in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Why Honolulu? Because we live here and want to help our island get up to the next level. And to make is super-easy, we're doing it with our very own BizGym® Fitness System, a business planning and financial modeling software. Have doubts about writing a b-plan? Read on...
To plan or not to plan… it’s a serious … [Read more...]

StoryManager is proud to be a sponsor of another BizGym Foundation project: Brand-Aid Hawai‘i. Brand-Aid kicked off this week with an inaugural Brand-Aid Triage Pop-up in downtown Honolulu.
Special Thanks to Dr. Evans and the gang at Argosy University for being the presenting sponsor and hosting the event at Tamarind Park at Bishop Square.
The goal of Brand-Aid is simple: do free brand checkups on companies to help fix their businesses brand boo-boos. At the first Triage, we patched up a … [Read more...]